LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 397 



sent out for the purpose of picking up lost seamen, is at once sin- 

 gular and amusing, considering the source from which it comes. 

 It is rather a squinting towards an acknowledgment that the en- 

 terprise, after all, has something to do with the protection of com- 

 merce ; for surely there are no mariners to be picked off the isl- 

 ands as near as it would be possible or safe to approach the 

 South Pole ! Why have you not the openness to admit that the 

 Macedonian is the proper vessel for this humane purpose? The 

 presence of such a vessel, by its effect upon the minds of the isl- 

 anders, would tend to lessen the hardships and dangers of our 

 sailors whom shipwreck may hereafter throw among them. In- 

 deed, this was one among other reasons which induced the late 

 president to adopt her as the flag-ship of the expedition ; and so 

 fully was he convinced of the importance of a frigate, that he is 

 known to have said, during the last session, that a ship of that class 

 should form one of the squadron, whether the appropriation, then 

 pending, was made or not. 



" A Friend to the Navy" tries his hand at verbal criticism, and, 

 like the wiseacre in the fable, who took a single brick as a sample 

 of the whole edifice, dashes upon a few detached sentences of a 

 certain address on the subject of the expedition, delivered in the 

 Hall of Representatives before the members of Congress on the 

 3d of April, 1836. What that address has to do with the derelic- 

 tions of duty which " Citizen" charges upon you, has not yet been 

 pointed out. 



Though I cannot say you have evinced the acuteness of Juvenal, 

 the grammatical accuracy of Harris or GifTord, or the polish of 

 that rancorous critic, Dennis, still I must own that you appear 

 to have caught the mantle of old Father Pepys, who, in his me- 

 moirs, thus discourseth about Hudibras : " When I came to read 

 it, it is so silly an abuse of the old Presbyter Knight going to the 

 wars, that I am ashamed of it : and by-and-by meeting at Mr. 

 Townsend's at dinner, I sold it to Mr. Battersby for eighteen- 

 pence." Your critical acumen seems to be of about the same 

 ealibre as that of the censor of Hudibras ; and I advise you to 

 dispose of this said address as he did of Butler's poem sell it ! 

 With great respect I have the honour to be 



Your obedient servant and fellow 



CITIZEN. 

 LL 



